Page 16 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 5

Empirical steps toward a Christian Psychology

tion of hopefulness and forgivingness (the ten- Moving Forward
dency to forgive). Both had significant relati- The implications for this project are many. As
onships with Grace (.280 and .352, respectively, we see how much one’s enactment of grace im-
both p < .01), showing that those who compre- pacts his or her life, we see a call for Christians
hend God’s grace are more hopeful and more to return to the sola gratia of the Reformation
likely to forgive others. In this study, we also and stress the wonder and power of all that God
clarified what exactly we are measuring so as gives us in his great grace. This is important
not to confuse it with God’s grace itself, coining in the pulpit and the pew, but also in the field
the term “enacted grace” to reflect how one re- of psychology. No secular counseling system
sponds to God’s grace by enacting it into one’s addresses God’s grace, and adopting the goals
thinking and behavior. By this point we have a and techniques of these systems will cause
respectable body of research to support the idea Christian psychologists and counselors to miss
of enacted grace and how to measure it, with this vital resource for improving the lives of be-
its predicting scores on a variety of measures of lievers into more of the lives that God intends
religiosity, virtues, and mental health. them to be. Once the new grace measure is fi-
nished, we hope to design and test psychothe-
Collaborating rapeutic interventions to help clients grow in
The beauty of both Christians and scientists is their enactment of God’s grace. In doing so,
a willingness to work together to find the truth, we believe we would fulfil part of the mission
and this has been the case here, too. Along of the Christian Psychology approach: to use
the way, we discovered that two other groups scientific methods to bring to bear the eternal
had developed scales to measure belief about truths of the Christian faith in the lives of belie-
and understanding of grace. Rodney Bassett vers. This would also be important as a way to
and colleagues at Roberts Wesleyan College demonstrate to those who seek our services as
(Bassett, Falinski, Luitich, Pahls, Suhr, Tenroe, Christian counselors that there is scientific evi-
White, & Wigle, 2012) developed the Amazing dence to back specifically Christian counseling
Grace Scale and Rodger Bufford and associates interventions (Plante, 2009, already has offered
(Peyton, Spradlin, & Bufford, 2000; Spradlin, thirteen generically spiritual interventions that
2002) on the other side of the United States at have empirical support).
George Fox University, developed a Grace Scale This move to demonstrate to the broader com-
as well. munity that we have scientific support for the te-
All three teams agreed to collaborate to compa- nets of our faith and their application in therapy
re and contrast the varying approaches to grace can be a form of outreach or even apologetics.
and recently presented some initial findings In the United States, insurance companies are
(Bufford, Blackburn, Bassett, & Sisemore, 2013). increasingly insisting that they will only pay for
The measures showed some differences in inter- therapy that has empirical evidence to support
nal consistencies among the scales, though they it, so Christians may have to demonstrate that
were generally good. However, the three related Christian counseling is indeed effect, and to do
to a number of other scales in differing manners so in the language of research. Efforts such as
suggesting that they vary in the construct they the grace project are vital if we are to maintain
are measuring. Given that this initial study was a freedom to work as licensed therapists and be
fairly small as only 129 subjects provided com- reimbursed, yet give Christian counselees help
plete data, the findings are of limited value. So, that is distinctly Christian.
even as I write, we are recruiting a much larger But the final goal of our journey is to offer a
group of subjects so as to have a large enough model of pursuing a research project in Chri-
group to perform a factor analysis of the three stian Psychology. How many other Christian
measures and ideally produce a new grace scale doctrines bear similar attention? What of cer-
that draws from the best of all three. tain attributes and understandings of the nature
of God, salvation, and the Christian life? What
of distinctly Christian practices of community,

016